New Paths 8: the Trickster (Pathfinder RPG)

Most tricksters are two steps ahead of the competition. A few know how to win before the race even begins!

The trickster is a new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatible class which combines arcane magic with roguish skills. Use your special Forte ability to perform incredible acrobatics, summon a magical familiar to act as an accomplice, beguile enemies, or steal spells as they’re being cast! Outwit your foes and outrun your enemies.

New Paths 8: The Trickster gives you everything you need to play a trickster whose understanding of the arcane is matched only by his charming and debonair style.

Designer Marc Radle has provided a daring and risk-taking new base class including:

4 new Fortes such as Arcane Accomplice, Beguiling, Spell Pilfering, and Shadow

8 new base class abilities such as Sneakspell and Ranged Legerdemain

a full 20-level class that knows when to walk away, and when to run!

Whether you use these powers for good, for seduction, or for power and wealth is entirely up to you--but who says you have to choose just one? Get The Trickster today, wield great arcane might, and have the satisfaction of always being ahead of the pack!

Disclaimer: This is a review copy sent at no cost to me, but that will have no effect on the quality of my review.
I open up the PDF and I notice two things.
1. The cover art is fricken amazing art and theme wise. He looks like a sneaky and dashing wizard just as the class describes.
2. This is definitely a one class PDF since the total page count is 10 pages.
3.
[b]Chassis[/b]
Looking at just the class chassis we have d8 hit die, 6+int skill points per level, impressive array of class skills, good reflex and will save, 6th level spell casting, and the ability to cast in light armor. I have yet to look at class features, but as a huge player of Bards I am used to using this chassis and I find it to match my perception of a sneaky wizard man.

[b]Class Features [/b]
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple list of martial weapons appropriate for the class. Most importantly this includes short bow, short sword, and rapier.

Spellcasting: Arcanist style preparation...See more off the Sorc/wizard list with Intelligence as the primary casting stat. Usually I’d be a little miffed that the class gets no discounted spells, but Arcanist preparation is a pretty big boon to counterbalance that. The spells per day are equal to a Bard and the Trickster has a spellbook. Additional strong class features help to offset the lack of discounted spell levels.

Sneak attack: Delayed progression that ends in +7d6. We’re all familiar with how this works in our individual games and I think it’s going to work well in the hands of a Trickster. Unfortunately this sneak attack still has the line restricting you from getting it if the enemy benefits from any concealment, unlike the Unchained Rogue.

Trapfinding: Also something we’re all familiar with.

Forte class Feature: Chosen early and scales as you level. I can tell you now, several of them are absolute knock outs.

[i]Acrobat forte[/i]: Almost saves you from ever needing a Mithril chain shirt, but does let you always count as having a running start, a higher chance of succeeding acrobatics checks, and more AC while armored. Some minor gripes here are that the bonus to acrobatics is a competence bonus and will not stack with the inevitable acrobatics item on your buy list and that the ability to ignore armor check penalty becomes obsolete as soon as you purchase a mithril chain shirt, something you will need when your dex reaches 20+. I would pick the other three fortes over this one.

[i]Arcane Accomplice[/i]: My personal favorite. You get a familiar who gets an equal number of d4 sneak attack die and an expanded skill list. Eventually the familiar shares your teamwork feats and can interrupt their movement while delivering harmless touch spells. By itself this was already cool because familiars are incredibly hand to have around, then I realized all the fun combos with the familiar folio this Forte allows!

[i]Beguile[/i]: A scaling bonus to spell penetration and DCs when an enemy is flat footed? Please and thank you. Feinting can grant me this bonus? Yes. It eventually lowers the action cost of feint and stacks with improved feint? Super yes. It’s self-evident how useful this forte can be for a Trickster who wants to combat cast.

[i] Spell Pilfer[/i]: Ohh that dude is casting a spell! Yoink. So in response to seeing an enemy initiate the casting of an arcane spell you can ID the spell, then force them to make a save, if they fail they lose the slot/spell known for a period of time and you can use one of your slots to cast it! Later this can be used to nab higher level spells, but you can’t cast them. Yes this essentially interrupts an enemy’s casting and has a higher chance of success than forcing a concentration check. Yes this has a daily limit on usage.

Crafty: Bonuses to skills off a list. It’s very useful for pumping your favorite Trickster skill through the roof.

Evasion: Also something we’re all familiar with and love.

Sneakspell: Similar to Spellstrike from the Magus, but it is limited only sneak attacks and the spell is lost if you miss. This has amazing synergy with the Beguile forte and gives the Trickster an opportunity to pair a strong damaging spell or a strong debuff spell with a weapon sneak attacks damage. Spells like Bestow Curse become a lot more valuable on a Trickster with this feature.

Uncanny Dodge: Comes in at level 8, but it’s always a nice thing to have.

Ranged Legerdemain: This allows you to sleight of hand or disable device from 30 ft away in exchange for a higher DC. Even though I don’t often use sleight of hand this class feature makes me want to put ranks in it and perform shenanigans.

Improved uncanny Dodge: Level 14 and protection from flanks is nice!

Filch Spell: Spend a move action to force another spell caster to give you control of their ongoing spell on a failed save? Yeah eat your own Dazing Ball lightning! Limited uses per day for a good reason.

Surprise Spells: Ok I love this feature and I already know someone out there is going to argue with me on the level of balance of this spell. It lets you add your sneak attack damage to any damaging spell you cast that hits a flat footed target. Yes that’s awesome and I love it. Yes this means you can sneak attack a fireball in a surprise round and no that is not broken. It means once or twice a fight the Trickster can feel almost as awesome as a Sorcerer who unleashes an empowered, maximized, spell perfectioned Fireball.

Improved Sneakspell: Makes it so you don’t lose the spell when you miss. I think 17th level is a bit late in the game for this feature to show up and I wish it came in between 9th and 14th since I’ve never had a game reach 17th level and this is a nice addition to Sneakspell.

Master Trickster: A combination of things that make a Trickster absolutely deadly when they sneak attack or sneakspell.

[b]Class Description [/b]: How well do the class features actually match the class description?
-Silver Tongued Manipulators: I can sort of see this. The class only uses charisma for bluff and by extension feinting and the bonus from crafty can be applied to bluff. If this class ever gets an expansion I would love to see a “Bluffing Forte”
-Stealthy Combatants: Absolutely and painfully so. The Trickster has both reasons and means to gain the initiative and ambush on their enemies.
-Connsumate Explorers: Also absolutely. The Trickster fulfills the “trap finding, skill monkeying, purse snatching, hidden room finding, dungeon exploring” role expertly.

[b]Conclusion[/b]
Really this class is pretty stellar. It does exactly what’s printed on the box and does it very well and even in ways I didn’t expect. The spell pilfer forte will definitely be a favorite at many tables and so will this class. The only legitimate complaints I have are that you can’t sneak attack in some of the most common environments of Pathfinder (since when are dungeons well lit?) because the sneak attack text comes from the core rule book instead of the Unchained Rogue and that the acrobat forte is significantly less useful than its piers. I do wish there were more fortes such as a bluffing forte, blinking forte, or phasing forte for the trickster and I hope that if this class shows up in a compiled publication Mr. Radle pilfers those ideas….

For a 2$ PDF that contains a pretty darn amazing class with very few legitimate issues I think it deserves a 5/5

An Endzeitgeist.com review of the Second Revision This second revised installment of the New Paths-series clocks in at 13 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 9 pages of content, so let's [...]

In this, the eighth of the New Paths series, we meet the Trickster, a crafty scoundrel who always seems to come out on top using a mix of stealth and other dubious skills, arcane study and innate casting ability. Outwitting and outthinking the [...]

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